The Hilarious But Scientific Explanation Why Everything in Life Eventually Goes to Shit

People are capable of doing amazing things. When we work together we can go to the moon! We can have all of the world’s information searchable from this thing in our pocket! We can change the world! And then we’ll eventually screw it up somehow and turn it all to shit. Why? It’s the Peter Principle.

People who are good at their current jobs will keep getting promoted until the point where they reach their level of incompetence at a future position, which means they start being bad at their jobs. Eventually, companies or any organisation ordered in a hierarchy will have multiple people flailing around in positions they’re simply not good at, turning everything the company does into shit.

So if you’re ever wondering how the hell something awful can happen, just think about the incompetence at the top. The culture of promotions and the embarrassment of demotions encourages this set up for failure. Here is Adam Westbrook explaining the famous Peter Principle as the scientific reason why everything is just a bit shit.